GNP dips 0.3%, but GDP jumps

IRELAND’S gross national product shrank in the third quarter of 2002, the first fall since records began in 1998.

GNP fell 0.3% while GDP, the economic growth measure used by most countries rose 6.9%.

The figures were acknowledged yesterday as confusing by economists, but Austin Hughes, chief economist of IIB Bank warned the economy has came close to stalling over the period.